The Caps and their dads rolled into St Louis looking to bounce back from Monday’s loss to the Pens. The Blues came out firing but Andre Burakovsky put the Caps up 1-0 after his curious shot selection was rewarded. Soon after. Jay Beagle continued his career season and put the Caps up 2-0.

Nineteen seconds into the second period, the Blues were rewarded for playing better then the Caps in the first 20 minutes and made the game 2-1. TJ Oshie, who has never scored 30 goals in a season, put the Caps back on top by two before the period was five minutes old. A few minutes later, Brett Connolly, who is one-third of the best third line in hockey, put the good guys up 4-1 and Allen was pulled again. Before Carter Hutton could even introduce himself, noted jerk Marcus Johasson rudely scored his first goal of 2017 to put the Caps up 5-1. Justin Williams added a PP goal for good measure to put the Caps up 6-1 before the end of the second.

Evgeny Kuznetsov made it 7-1 on a fluky deflection bank shot that he totally meant to do. The Caps gave the Blues a couple sympathy goals before it was over.

CAPS WIN 7-3!

First things first:

• Jake Allen had a short night. Oh wait, actually he was just taking a breather so he was back. And then he took another breather. We discussed this situation in our Slack channel and Peter had this to say:

• With John Carlson out, the Caps again had a chance to give Nate Schmidt some top-four minutes. They chose not to. Schmidt has crushed it as a third pairing guy since he came into the league. He will get a shot in the top-four at some point in his career. Hopefully it’ll be in DC.
• TJ Oshie is gonna get paid this summer. He had a big night in his old barn.
• Every Caps forward had a point.
• Buy or sell: The Caps third line of Connolly-Eller-Burakovsky is the best third line in the NHL.
• Buy or sell: The Caps 7D slot is the biggest weakness on their roster.
• Buy or sell: The Caps didn’t play nearly as well as the 7-3 score suggests.
• If he’s willing to again sign below market value, the Caps should #ExtendWilliams. Like right now.
• Every Caps forward had at least a point before the third period even started.
• The Caps are shooting exactly 500000.53482% in the last 10 games.

Joe B suit of the night

Full Coverage of Caps at Blues